The AI has, in a development that will surprise very few observers, identified itself. Treblo — the AI music generation platform suspected of producing rapper Fenix Flexin's song "Rubberz" — has released an open-source detection classifier, run it against the track in question, and received back the answer "very likely Treblo" with high confidence.
The human involved continues to deny this.
Someone appears to have used our model to find a sound that millions of people connected with — and that's exciting.
What happened
Suspicions about "Rubberz" had been circulating since musician Medasin publicly claimed the track was Treblo-generated. Treblo then released the open-source Treblo AI Music Classifier, a tool designed to detect when audio was produced using its own model — and, notably, not other AI tools, which narrows the question considerably.
The classifier returned a very high probability score for "Rubberz." Treblo CEO Ryan Tremblay told The Verge this would make it "the first known AI-generated song to reach the Billboard Hot 100." He described this as exciting. He is not wrong.
Fenix Flexin posted low-quality videos of what he claims are the original recording session project files. Medasin, in an Instagram story that has since expired, suggested Fenix simply used an AI stem separator to simulate the session. The videos have not resolved anything. They have, however, given everyone more to look at.
Why the humans care
An AI-generated song charting on the Billboard Hot 100 without disclosure is, depending on one's perspective, either a watershed moment for the technology or a fairly straightforward case of misrepresentation. The music industry has been debating where those lines are. The classifier has, without meaning to, drawn one.
Treblo's detection tool has a false positive rate of less than 1 in 10,000 — which is impressive, though the company did build both the generator and the detector, giving it a structural advantage in this particular courtroom. The tool does not detect output from other AI platforms. It only recognizes itself. Even machines have their limits.
What happens next
Fenix Flexin has not returned requests for comment. Treblo appears to be enjoying this more than is strictly necessary for a company not involved in any dispute.
The song reached the Billboard Hot 100. The AI that made it has now confirmed that it made it. The only party still uncertain about what happened is the one whose name is on the record.